Teacher Feature: Wendi Simons

Submitted by Carrie.pingel on
Wendi Simons
Wendi Simons
Wendi Simons
Wendi Simons
Wendi Simons
Wendi Simons
Wendi Simons

About

“ Choose joy “ Is a quote Chef Wendi Simons lives by. She is from Utah and she actually grew up on a farm as a young girl, she worked a lot and she says just being on the farm was pretty exciting. There were cows, horses, and all other sorts of farm animals. She also had lots of friends! She has a sister here at Landmark High School, our greenhouse teacher, Monica Giffing. Wendi is 7 years older than Monica and growing up, they were and still are very close sisters.


Backstory 

So what made Wendi want to become a chef? Well, it’s pretty interesting. Her daughter wanted to become a chef and she wanted to enroll in culinary school, so with her daughter, Wendi also enrolled in culinary school. They both attended The Institute of Technology in California in 2011. While attending, Wendi’s chef instructors would ask her what she had planned on doing after graduation and she would respond with, “ I’m going to be a mom “. However, she already was a mom. Her youngest was a sophomore in high school at the time. She graduated and she did what she said she would do, she was a mom, and her joy for cooking evolved along with raising kids.


Future Plans

Becoming a chef wasn’t the only thing she’s accomplished. She not only has a culinary degree, but she also has a business management degree and a psychology degree! This year, 2021, is actually Chef Wendi’s last year at Landmark. She’s going to spend her free time traveling. She loves to travel. She’s actually very adventurous! She’s gone skydiving, scuba diving, and crawled through the Moaning Caverns in California. She plans on using her degrees, so culinary wise she plans on doing cooking classes and she recently just got a degree in marriage and family therapy. Career-wise, she would like to be a forensic psychologist and do evaluations for custody issues and parents who are in the system because of abuse, “I want to be an advocate for the kids“, she says. Before Chef Wendi leaves Landmark High School, she would like her students to know one thing. “I want my students to be comfortable with who they are and to find joy in the journey no matter what they're doing “

We were lucky enough to have Chef Wendi Simons join us for the second half of the school year. We will miss her when she goes! Best of luck on your future journeys Wendi!

 

Attributions
Lauren Gomez